Leading up to the pandemic, my wife, Theresa, and I were enjoying successful work in New York - she as a mental health professional at Riker’s Island jail in NYC and I as a teacher in the NYC public schools.

Since we arrived in Sioux Falls, we have fallen in love with our community. Theresa has taken up a full-time position with the Sioux Falls School District as an Education Assistant at Axtel Park, and I have worked as a substitute teacher for the District. What we have found in our new adventure are wonderful students, talented teachers and a dedicated community that values its children and cares deeply for their future.

My youngest child had occupational and physical therapy needs that hindered his ability to participate independently in traditional public school. While homeschooling, I helped my son, Zion, overcome his physical challenges through non-clinical means. Fine motor skill ability was addressed through rigorous violin lessons, which also benefited the development of perfect pitch along with general musicality. Additionally, I devised a mountain climbing plan to help Zion overcome muscular issues that would have required him to navigate his high school building and its staircases with a paraprofessional. Zion and I started by completing a 14-hour round trip climb of Mt. Marcy in New York’s Adirondacks and progressed to climbing Mt. Washington, New England’s highest peak - twice! We climbed mountains until my son was able to pass the physical exam that allowed him to move independently around his school.

My background as an educator includes more than 20 years teaching. Prior to teaching in public schools I taught ESL for eight years in Taiwan. Through this I learned about Krashen’s input hypothesis. I used this approach to homeschool two of my children, Gurion and Poiema, who moved to the US from Taiwan after the fifth grade and didn’t speak a word of English. They read at the college level by the time they entered the 9th grade.

I also taught science for 15 years in New York City schools. Many of the schools where I taught were attended by students living in significant poverty, including a high school in Brooklyn. Somewhere in the range of 25 percent of the students were homeless at some point during the school year. But I was able to successfully move my science students in this Brooklyn high school from the bottom 25 percent to the top 6 percent of NYC on the annual statewide Regents exam. All kids deserve the same expectations of success.